PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Remote Education: Coronavirus (18 November 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which companies supplied dongles and mifi devices to his Department as part of the scheme to help children and families access remote education during the covid-19 outbreak; and what the cost to the Department was of that equipment.

Asked by:
Dame Siobhain McDonagh (Labour)

As part of over £195 million invested to support access to remote education and social care, the Department has already provided over 51,000 4G wireless routers, with free data for the academic year, to support disadvantaged children. The Department continues to provide 4G wireless routers, with free data, where schools experience disruption to face to face education and pupils need to access remote education.

To date, the Department has invested over £6 million in connectivity, including hardware (4G wireless routers) and data (SIM cards and data roaming). The current contract is held by Computacenter.

In partnership with mobile network operators, the Department is also providing access to free additional mobile data for the academic year. Schools can request free mobile data uplifts, via the Get Help with Technology service, when they experience disruption to face to face education or for clinically extremely vulnerable children.

Answered by:
Nick Gibb (Conservative)
27 November 2020